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Bioinformatics Ph.D. Program

Georgia Tech's Ph.D. Program in Bioinformatics prepares graduate students to be leaders in the field of bioinformatics and computational biology. The Ph.D. in Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary program spanning several academic departments at Georgia Tech.

Bioinformatics is emerging as a strategic discipline at the frontier between Biology, Biochemistry, Biomedicine, Bioengineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics, impacting fundamental science, medicine, biotechnology, and society. With its broad mission statement, this program at Georgia Tech has the following focus/strength areas:

Development of software tools, algorithms for biological sequence and structure analysis and function prediction, such as gene identification and protein structure prediction, reconstruction of evolutionary history of genomes and proteomes

Application of bioinformatics to fundamental biology and systems biology

Application of bioinformatics to disease diagnosis, classification, prognosis, and treatment

Recent methods of bioinformatics and computational biology have made the following possible:

Explaining and predicting organization, structure and function of biological systems

Understanding genetic mechanisms of normal and abnormal development on a cellular level, dynamics of gene expression, molecular factors and cellular network perturbations leading to tumor, microbial virulence, etc.

Developing new drug discovery targets, new vaccines and new therapies for treating human diseases

Approaching the fundamental basis of the personalized medicine via genetic/proteomic profiling of an individual

There is an increasing demand for scientists with advanced training in Bioinformatics. Professionals in this area should have a thorough knowledge of Molecular Biology, Mathematics and Statistics as well as Computer Science and Engineering. In 1997 the College of Science at Georgia Tech proposed and established a professional Master of Science in Bioinformatics degree program, the first of its kind in the United States.

Since its inception more than 100 graduates have been already employed in more than 40 leading Institutions of the US Academy and Industry and abroad.

In 2003, Georgia Tech established a Ph.D. program in Bioinformatics. The program has homes at the Schools of Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering and at the College of Computing. The program offers the best of Georgia Tech high standards: high quality education in Mathematics, Statistics and Computing along with advanced courses in Biology and Biochemistry.